Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OVERRULED, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The threads our hands in blindness spin Last Line: God grant the varying notes may tend! | ||||||||
THE threads our hands in blindness spin No self-determined plan weaves in; The shuttle of the unseen powers Works out a pattern not as ours. Ah! small the choice of him who sings What sound shall leave the smitten strings; Fate holds and guides the hand of art; The singer's is the servant's part. The wind-harp chooses not the tone That through its trembling threads is blown; The patient organ cannot guess What hand its passive keys shall press. Through wish, resolve, and act, our will Is moved by undreamed forces still; And no man measures in advance His strength with untried circumstance. As streams take hue from shade and sun, As runs the life the song must run; But, glad or sad, to His good end God grant the varying notes may tend! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN AUTOGRAPH (1) by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER ASTRAEA by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER AT LAST by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER AT PORT ROYAL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BARBARA FRIETCHIE [SEPTEMBER 13, 1862] by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BARCLAY OF URY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BENEDICITE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE [DECEMBER 2, 1859] by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BURNS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK; 1658 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |
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